Vocational Education

Encyclopedia of Childhood and Adolescence, Apr 06, 2001

• establishment of voluntary industry-based skills standards for most occupations;
• integration of academic and vocational education curricula; and
• emphasis on providing quality vocational education to all students, including special populations.

The 1990s legislation required establishment of state-level performance measures for vocational education programs funded by federal monies. One example of a program that addresses all three developments in vocational education is the Tech Prep program. Organized by broad career clusters such as Health and Human Services, Engineering and Industrial Training, Information Systems, tech prep programs are composed of a two-to-three year curriculum of instruction in the basic principles of science, math, communications, and social policies that form the backbone of a particular cluster. Under this program both college prep and voc ed students would take classes together. One student might be planning for career in medical school and another might have the goal of obtaining a position as a nurse's aide immediately after graduation.

Academies and magnet schools also exemplify integration of academic and vocational education coursework, particularly in urban areas. Academies are schools within schools that concentrate on one vocational area and provide a high level of structure. Students take all their voc ed classes from the same teachers for two to three years. Magnet schools such as aviation high schools, fashion high schools, and the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences operate independently and offer a less structured program than academies.

Occupation programs with the highest participation Occupation programs with the highest participation Business56% Trade and industry35% Technical and communications23%

• Allum, K. F. Finding One's Way: Career Guidance for Disadvantaged Youth . Washington, DC: US Department of Labor, Employment, and Training Administration, 1993.
• Grub, W. N. ed. Education Through Occupations: Integrating Academic and Vocational Education in American High Schools (Vols. 1 & 2). New York: Teachers College Press, 1995.
• Levesque, Karen, et al. Vocational Education in the United States: The Early 1990s. Washington, DC: US Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, November 1995.
• Levinson, E. M. Transdisciplinary Vocational Assessment: Issues in School Based Programs. Brandon, VT: Clinical Psychology Publishing Co., 1993.
• National Occupational Information Coordinating Committee (NOICC). National Career Development Guidelines. Portland, OR: Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, 1989.
• Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills. What Work Requires of Schools. Washington, DC: US Department of Labor, 1991.
• Stern, D., et al. Career Academies: Partnerships for Reconstructing American High Schools. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1992.